Patrizia De Blanck

Patrizia De Blanck y Menocal (9 November 1940 – 8 February 2026) was an Italian television personality and socialite.

Early life De Blanck was born in Rome on 9 November 1940. Her mother, Countess Lloyd Dario, was the last descendant of the Venetian family that once owned the Ca' Dario palace; her father was Cuban ambassador , first cousin once removed of Cuban president Mario García Menocal (and Secretary of State during his presidency) and son of Dutch-Cuban musician Hubert de Blanck. When the communist revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro, came to power, they nationalized his entire family's assets, including villas and sugar cane and tobacco plantations, exiling the family from Cuba.

Career

In 1958, De Blanck became one of the two assistants of the television programme Il Musichiere presented by Mario Riva (a role in which she alternated with Lorella De Luca, Alessandra Panaro, Carla Gravina, , Marilù Tolo, Mimma Di Terlizzi and ).

In 2002, she returned to television, taking part as a regular guest in on Rai 2 with Piero Chiambretti, while the following year she was a regular guest on Domenica in, hosted by Paolo Bonolis. In 2005, she participated as a competitor in the reality show on Rai 1, while from 2006 she intervened in Igor Righetti's radio programme Il ComuniCattivo broadcast on Radio 1 with the column La classe non è acqua, transgresdire con bon ton. In 2008, she was a contestant in the sixth edition of the reality show L'isola dei famosi, reaching the semi-final. In 2020, she participated as a contestant in the fifth edition of Big Brother VIP, being eliminated in the episode of 23 November 2020.

Personal life

A Roman Catholic, in December 1960 De Blanck married British aristocrat Anthony Leigh Milne in a ceremony at the Capitoline Hill. The marriage ended abruptly a few months later, when she caught him cheating on her with his male best friend. She was later engaged to Egyptian entrepreneur Farouk Chourbagi, who was killed in 1964, and she testified in that was highly publicized in Italy. However, she denied the allegations afterwards.

Death De Blanck died after a long illness in Rome on 8 February 2026, at the age of 85.